Yugoslav President Urges Halt to Disputes Over "Freezer Truck Case"Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica on Thursday urged leaders of the Yugoslav armed forces and the Serbian Interior Ministry to stop the disputes between them over the so-called "freezer truck case."According to local press reports, Serbian police are probing the case of a refrigerator truck dumped in the Danube River in April 1999 that allegedly contained the bodies of 86 presumed Kosovo Albanians. Army Chief of Staff General Nebojsa Pavkovic on Tuesday and Thursday accused "certain leaders" from Serbia's Interior Ministry of "immoral practice" by spreading rumors and attempting to implicate the Yugoslav military in the "freezer truck case." Early this month, the information bureau of the general staff of the Yugoslav armed forces had also issued a statement strongly denying any linkage with the case. The military knew nothing about what the Interior Ministry had done during NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, to say nothing of the alleged "freezer truck case," as the police were not under the army's authority during the war, the statement said, urging the Serbian Interior Ministry to release evidence about the military involvement in the case. At a press conference on Thursday, President Kostunica urged leaders of the military and the Serbian Interior Ministry to stop the "pointless" arguments and disputes over the case, saying there were many more problems the country is faced with that call for urgent solutions. What is needed is a thorough investigation into the case by the country's judicial authorities, rather than making public statements by the top leaders trying to blame and discredit each other, he said. The Serbian Interior Ministry has recently released alleged war crime evidence that former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic ordered the remains of presumed ethnic Albanians, loaded in a refrigerator truck, to be dumped into the Danube River in 1999. Chairman of the Serbian Radical Party Vojislav Seselj told the Serbian parliament on May 30 that in order to have Milosevic extradited to the Hague-based International Tribunal, the Serbian Interior Ministry did not hesitate to concoct the tale of the alleged "freezer truck case." In response, Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said it was an undeniable fact that 86 bodies were found in a freezer truck dumped in the Danube River. He said the ministry would soon release details of the case to the public. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |